To: Entertainment Law Class

From: Nicholas Johnson

Re: Class Preliminaries
 

Almost all of you have, and replied by, e-mail.  Because I have not yet heard from some of you, however, I am sending you this memo by, as we say, “snail mail.”

(By the way, as you see, until someone comes up with a better name I’ll be calling the class “Entertainment Law.” It can’t do me any good – “this late, in my career” – but it may add a note of prestige to your resume!)

The primary urgency, at this late date, is whether you’ll be able to get the book in time if you haven’t yet ordered it.  So, you might want to shop around, not for price (no discounts seem to be available) but for shipping date and estimate of when you’ll get it.

We have our room (Boyd Law Building 125) almost every Thursday afternoon.  The one exception, unfortunately, is our first meeting, January 21. It may be empty by 2:30 but, if not, we can use the room next door (I believe it’s 115 – I’ll put up a sign on 125).

My thought is that we might best spend our first session together: (a) getting to know each other, (b) exploring what you want to get out of this experience (your expectations regarding the class; your future career plans/needs; the range of options I can offer; etc.), (c) setting whatever administrative agreements (e.g., timetables for seminar paper mileposts, etc.) we need, (d) handing out, and providing preliminary discussion of, some basic demystifying materials about “The Law,” accompanied by, perhaps (e) a walking-talking tour of the law library (one of North America’s top five) as a further, hands-on, way of introducing you to the basic foundations on which a sub-set, like “entertainment law,” is built.

If you are curious, you might want to check out my Web site (liked to a couple thousand pages of my stuff plus thousands more pages of others’ sites)https://www.nicholasjohnson.org [Previously http://soli.inav.net/~njohnson ]A>
(This may be a way for you to get a better sense of the background and experience I bring to this venture and, therefore, what you might reasonably want to ask of me during the semester.) This is not, however, “an assignment,” just an offer/option.

Those initial e-mails you may have missed follow:

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[December 15, 1999]

Theater Class
From: Professor Nicholas Johnson

My friends:

You are, I am informed, signed up for my class this next semester.

I will be writing you a letter regarding some of the pre-semester details.

But because of the efficiency of e-mail (when it works!) I thought I'd take a guess at what might be your addresses and see what happens.

Nick Johnson

# # #

[December 15, 1999]

Theater Class

Well, that was much faster/easier than I thought.  Tweak a couple of addresses and I now seem to have correct e-mails for all of you but one.

(Note:  Therefore, I will _not_ be sending the letter I referred to in the last e-mail.  This takes its place.)

Of course, I don't know if you _read_ your e-mail.  So . . . please reply to this message in some way to let me know that you got it.  And you might let me know if you are willing to communicate in this way, or if was only a fluke that you happened to log in and get this message.

The reason for wanting to communicate with you now is to get some notion of what it is you'd like to get out of our time together during the next semester.  Needless to say, I have a "default position" regarding what we will be doing.  But I want to make it as useful (and as much fun) for you as possible.  And only you can let me know what that might be.

I was hoping to have the whole group of you over to the house for dinner or something this week to talk about that.  But I don't know if that will work -- on either your end or ours.  Time's short.  And I don't know if you'll even get this, or have exams, want to get out of town, etc.

So, let me know if you're going to be around between now and January 21 (when we first meet).  Let me know your pleasure: whole group, small groups, one-on-one; come to the house, talk on the phone, come by my office, meet elsewhere, etc.

Meanwhile, if I don't see you:

(1) Important:  You will need to order the book a couple weeks or more in advance to make sure of having it in time for class.  The small quantity, nature of publisher, weight of the book, etc., is such that nobody wants to order all of them in advance.  I have tried to find a discount for you; none seems to be available.  So you can order it through Prairie Lights, or other local bookstores, or from any one of a number of online services.  The price from everyone is $59.95.  (Sorry.  At least I'm not the author.)  It will be a book for you to keep, I think, as a reference, as well as to use during our sessions.

Biederman, Pierson, Silfen, Glasser, Berry and Sobel (sometimes Robert C. Berry is listed first), Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries (3d. ed. 1996; Praeger (now "Greenwood"?).

(2)  We will be meeting in Room 125, Boyd Law Building, Thursdays, 2:30-5:00 p.m. (plus any break time).  Assuming we're operating on the University (not Law School) schedule, our first regularly scheduled meeting will be Thursday, January 21st.

(3)  All my coordinates should be at the bottom of this e-mail.  Feel free to call me at home.  My law school office information is:  Room 445, 335-9146, and my assistant is Rita Jansen, Room 421 [now 405], 335-9055.

I look forward to getting to know you all and our adventure next semester.

Nick Johnson

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|               Nicholas Johnson                   |
|E-mail:  njohnson@inav.net                        |
|Postal:  Box 1876, Iowa City IA 52244-1876 USA    |
|Fax:     USA + 319-335-9019                       |
|Voice:   USA + 319-337-5555 (answering machine)   |
|Parcels: N Johnson, UI College of Law,            |
|         Melrose & Byington, Iowa City IA 52244   |
|Home Web page: http://soli.inav.net/~njohnson     |
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